A coffee date with half of Wellington comedy-folk duo Flight of the Conchords has sold for more than $1600.

Oscar winner Bret McKenzie will meet with the winner of a Trade Me auction for a cup of coffee and a chat as a fundraiser for Oxfam and Fair Trade Fortnight.

The auction, which closed last night, received almost 35,000 views and the buyer paid $1660 for the privilege.

Along with the coffee date, which will be held in Wellington between May 28 and 30 at a time and place of McKenzie's choice, the buyer will also receive a guitar signed by McKenzie and Conchords' partner Jemaine Clement.

Nancy wrote:All those who are viry jealous show by the raise of hands.

I checked out the user profile of the winner and it was a guy in Australia that won. He's a first time TradeMe user who joined just this month. I reckon he must have signed up especially to bid. Good for him winning it! Bit of a commute for a cup of coffee tho...

Bret McKenzie will be sitting down for a coffee with Robert Howie (inset). Photo / Brett Phibbs, APNZ

A trans-Tasman flight, expenses and $1660 may seem an excessive cost for a cup of coffee, but one Flight of the Conchords fan will spend that much to meet one half of the folk-comedy duo Bret McKenzie.

Sydney man Robert Howie, 29, this week won a Trade Me charity auction to sit down with McKenzie over a Fair Trade cuppa in Wellington.

The Conchords star had offered to meet him in Sydney later in the year.

"But it's more fun to come across to Wellington," Mr Howie said.

"I'm all for frivolity - in March a friend and I flew to New Zealand just to take a photo for a scavenger hunt, we spent about 26 hours in the country."

Mr Howie says he took his time to tell his wife he was bidding on the auction, which includes a guitar autographed by McKenzie and comedy partner Jemaine Clement.

"A week passed and I still had the leading bid so decided it was time to let the wife know I may have just spent a lot of our money on a cup of coffee.

"Then in the last hour of the auction I got a message on my phone saying I was outbid.

We decided this was a pretty special once in a lifetime opportunity - so I bid a little more and won."

The proceeds of the auction, part of Oxfam's Biggest Coffee Break campaign, will go towards the charity's push to promote Fair Trade and raise funds for its work with communities in the developing world.

Mr Howie, who has worked for an aid and development organisation, said he was a strong supporter of the camnpaign and ran a small Fair Trade stall at some local markets.

"I'm a big fan of Oxfam and am passionate about reducing global poverty, so parting with so much money to assist community development in poor communities sits fine with us," he said.

"And the super bonus is I get to meet Bret McKenzie."

Mr Howie said he loved both seasons of the Flight of the Conchords' TV show and reckoned he had watched every clip of them on YouTube.

McKenzie said buying Fair Trade products was a simple way of making the world a better place.

Coffee dates with others stars, including Sir Graham Henry and actor Shane Cortese, were also auctioned as part of the campaign.

As you probably know I won a charity auction with Oxfam NZ as part of their fair trade fortnight campaign to have a coffee with Bret.

So I booked some flights and a hotel and waited for confirmation of the exact time and place.

the noob (brother in law) decided to come along for the ride and so we flew over together on monday night to windy Wellington. I’ve been to Wellington a few times before and NZ several times. I love this country soo much.

Yesterday we did the tourist thing and pottered around the city, cablecar, ferry, walking around, searching fro free wifi.

Then today at lunch time I met Bret!!!

I wasn’t heaps sure what to expect, but I was pretty certain it would be a quick hello, good to meet you. then pose for a photo on that’s it. It was nothing like that.

Lynda (from Oxfam NZ) was waiting in the cafe when I arrived, we chatted for a bit and not long later Bret walked in with a guitar case slung over his shoulder, we stood up and greeted each other.

The chatting was easy and free flowing, we all laughed at each others jokes and told stories of our lives. After a while Bret asked if if we had eaten (no). So we ordered a few pizzas and kept chatting away. After one if his stories I made some joke and he laughed then followed it up with “I’m going to use that”. So pretty much I write for the Conchords now, please talk to my agent.

The pizza was eaten we kept chatting away, Bret has even offered to get me in to the Opera House gig in Sydney in July!!! He was the nicest easy going guy ever and it was a super afternoon. We ended up chatting away for about 2 hours and finished the time with some photos and the handing over of the guitar. (Which Bret had bought this morning from his favourite Wellington guitar store). It’s cool and signed by hime and Jermaine.

After a long lunch Bret had to go as Jermaine was texting him to get back to rehearsals for their tour which starts in a week or so.

So we parted ways and I was and am a very happy boy.

To celebrate noob and I went to Parliament house and watched some debating in the chamber. Nerds!

After one if his stories I made some joke and he laughed then followed it up with “I’m going to use that”. So pretty much I write for the Conchords now, please talk to my agent.

I like that guy! (even if he spells Jemaine's name wrong...)

Wow, what a great experience. I'm not at all surprised to hear how cool Bret was all around- hanging out and eating lunch, offering to get him in to the Sydney gig, etc, with Jemaine nag-texting him to get back, lol! Makes my Bretero tendencies come out....

SheWolf wrote:That's a bit suspect, or maybe more like a pre-arranged rescue call from a friend when you're out on a first date

Oh I don't think so - not after two hours!What a sweetheart Bret is to offer him tickets to the show at Sydney Opera House (that he had missed out on) as well! Howie's so lucky! But deservedly - he did spend $1660 + the price of a hotel etc! He seems like a nice guy as well as a big fan so I'm glad he wound up happy!